Washington Post:
Turn on the television in any state near the border with Mexico, and before long you'll see a Republican campaign ad that looks something like this one, which ran here earlier this year: "I'm standing in New Mexico," the candidate says, "and on the other side of that fence is the murder capital of the world." A picture of armed police flashes across the screen. "When crime spills over, I prosecute."
What makes this particular spot unusual is the name of the candidate who made it: Susana Martinez. Like many Republicans, New Mexico's candidate for governor is taking advantage of voters' anger over illegal immigration. She has pledged to go after undocumented workers and make it illegal for them to obtain driver's licenses. She defends Arizona's right to pass its controversial new law targeting illegals, and she is a vocal supporter of ending sanctuary policies for illegal immigrants who are arrested for committing crimes.
It has been a successful strategy. Martinez is running ahead of her Democratic opponent, Diane Denish, and could become the country's first Latino woman governor.
Martinez is one of a trio of Latino Republicans poised to win high office this year in part by running on an anti-immigration platform. In Florida, Senate candidate Marco Rubio is ahead of Democrat Kendrick Meek and independent Charlie Crist. And in Nevada, gubernatorial candidate Brian Sandoval is leading Democrat Rory Reid.
If they win, Martinez, Rubio and Sandoval would make up a high-profile triumvirate that Republicans hope will help the party woo increasingly influential Latino voters. The nation's fastest-growing voting bloc - nearly half the voters in New Mexico, for instance, are of Latino origin - has largely shunned the GOP in recent years.
Yet those Republican hopes may be difficult to realize, if only because the GOP's anti-immigration rhetoric is a primary reason Latinos have turned away from the party.
...
The GOP is not anti-immigration. That is an absurd charge. Lime most Americans the GOP is against
illegal immigration. There is a difference and there is no good reason for
Hispanic voters to feel that opposition to illegal immigration means that Hispanics are not welcomed into the Republican party. Just because
Democrats pander to illegals does not mean that Hispanics should back them. What these Republicans show is they are patriotic Americans who have American values and they have fully assimilated into the American culture. They have embraced the American culture and in return they have been embraced by Republicans.
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